Leyton Orient director of football Martin Ling said Ross Embleton has been a “leader” during his spell as the interim head coach of the club.

Embleton made the decision earlier today to revert back to his old position of assistant coach, the one that he held under Justin Edinburgh’s tenure at the club, leaving Ling in the position of finding a new head coach to take the club forward.

Speaking to the club website, Ling said: “I can remember saying to him [Embleton] that it’s going to be turbulent waters and I remember saying to him that I’m going to be shoulder to shoulder with you through those turbulent waters but you’re going to be the man at the helm steering the ship through.

“I didn’t know what turbulent waters actually looked like because we’d never been in a situation like the one we were put into with Justin’s passing. It’s been tough for all concerned but Ross has been at the forefront of that and has been a brilliant captain and leader to be able to steer that ship to where we are today.

“He’s steered us through those turbulent times and now it’s about adding something to the mix. The first thing I want to go out there from this football club, everybody from Nigel [Travis], from Kent [Teague] and from me is the admiration that we have for Ross, Danny [Webb] and Jobi [McAnuff] as leaders of this club, but Ross especially.”

For the third time during Ling’s spell as the director of football, he finds himself in need of a new manager, and he says it’s a process that has already begun but will take time to complete.

He said: “The process is quite simple really. We’re now inviting people to apply for the job. The way that it’s happened in that Ross has decided he doesn’t want the main job allows us to get the trawler net out for everybody that puts their CV in. We will then reduce that to a number of around six that I will go and see and have a meeting that’s not an interview.

“I will then put whichever candidates out of that six or so in front of the board of myself and we will come out at the end of that with the manager. We’ve done that process twice since I’ve been here. One time it ended up with Steve Davis and one time it ended up with Justin Edinburgh. Some people will say one time it didn’t work and one time it did work and that’s probably true in terms of results, but I believe that it’s the proper process and I believe it’s how you get the right candidate.

“I’m not going to put a time-scale on it. I don’t want to rush it. I’m very confident that Ross, Danny and Jobi can lead the team through whatever amount of games it may be and I’m confident that we can take our time because we’ve got such a good team in place at the moment and it’s all about adding that last piece of the jigsaw.”